CHICAGO, IL. – As hundreds of Tibet supporters took to the streets this morning on route to the Chinese Consulate to protest the one-year countdown to the Beijing 2008 Olympics, a number of young Americans, most of them Tibetan-American, entered the Chinese Consulate, located at 100 West Erie Street, to present the Consulate General with an open letter to the government of China, demanding that they meet the hunger strikers’ five requests. A copy of the letter is attached to this press release.
Shortly before the hundreds of demonstrators converged on the consulate, the activists were denied by the Chinese Consulate the opportunity to peacefully deliver the open letter to its staff. The activists entered the premises dressed for business but removed their shirts to reveal bright yellow Team Tibet shirts beneath as stunned consulate workers looked on. The letter outlined the hunger strikers’ demands and asserted that Tibet support groups will stand strong and unified in their quest for human rights in Tibet and accountability from the government in Beijing for their oppression of Tibetans within Tibet.
The activists also requested to speak with the Consul General, Ping Huang, about the hunger strikers’ five points, the current political prisoners within Tibet, including those arrested in Lithang last week for voicing their support of the Dalai Lama and freedom for the Tibetan people, and the six Tibet activists who were detained yesterday for hanging a 450 square foot banner from the Great Wall of China which read “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet 2008.” Their request was refused as they were ushered out of the building.
They then proceeded to the Visa Office located at One E. Erie Street, Suite 500, where they began to fill out the paper work to obtain visas to visit Beijing. During this time they once again attempted to present the open letter to the office’s staff, who denied both the letter and any cooperation with the activists. While most had their photographs taken and were escorted outside by security, Pema Tashi, a Tibetan-American soccer player from Eau Claire, Wisconsin, continued the visa application process in the hopes of representing Tibet at the Olympics. When asked for legal documentation of his country, he replied that “Tibet does not have the right to give its citizens legal documents under Chinese control.” He was then forcibly escorted out of the building.
“The workers inside both the consulate and visa office were shocked,” said Abi Scott, one of the Madison, Wisconsin based activist who had entered both buildings. “They now know that we are willing to move beyond our comfort zone to confront them in their own consulate. They know that we are strong and unified in our goals.”
“This was the first time for Tibet activists to enter the Chinese Consulate and visa office in Chicago,” noted Tenzin Tsetan, the chapter coordinator for the University of Wisconsin-Madison chapter of Students for a Free Tibet. “The world over we are seeing Tibet supporters confronting China on their own turf, whether in consulates and embassies or in China and Tibet. We may be up against a country of over a billion, but when we are focused on improving the lives of people in Tibet, we are strong enough to take them on.”
After being denied meetings and made leave the premises, the activists joined the demonstrators outside the consulate, who carried banners and signs proclaiming, “No Olympics Beijing 2008,” “We are Team Tibet,” and “One World, One Dream: Free Tibet,” which were held prominently against hundreds of yellow shirts and traditional Tibetan dress, as demonstrators angrily demand accountability from China before the Beijing 2008 Olympics.
The main goal of this demonstration is to highlight the human rights abuses perpetrated on Tibetans within Tibet and to force China to uphold its promise to the International Olympics Committee (IOC), to improve human rights conditions within its borders during the time leading up to the 2008 Olympics. To this day there has been no evidence of improvement, and Human Rights Watch stated last week that, “the Chinese government shows no substantive progress in addressing long-standing human rights concerns.”
“The Chinese government in Beijing has tried to cover their egregious human rights record with lies and propaganda,” said Hilary Edwards of Students for a Free Tibet. “Beijing is trying every tactic to burnish their image prior to the Games, save actually improving human rights conditions and granting Tibetans true autonomy in their own land. Now Tibetans and their supporters worldwide are standing prepared to fight for those within Tibet and for all those within China who suffer human rights violations at the hands of the Chinese government.”
“From now until the end of the 2008 Beijing Olympics we will strengthen our worldwide effort to secure Tibet's independence and to obtain the release of the Panchen Lama, Tenzin Delek Rinpoche, and other Tibetan political prisoners. Similar to an athlete training each day for the Olympics, for the next year we will methodically work to achieve our mission and confront the brutal and unthinkable human rights abuses being carried out by China in Tibet,” stated Professor Larry Gerstein, President of the International Tibet Independence Movement.